We first saw the Silicon Motion SM2256 controller at Flash Memory Summit, but now we've seen it live, in action, and driving several different types of TLC NAND.

Silicon Motion had this live demo running on a testbed at their suite:

The performance looked very good considering the 2256 is designed to efficiently push TLC flash, which is slower than MLC. As their representative was explaining that the SM2256 is currently being tested with Samsung, Toshiba, and SK Hynix TLC flash, I noticed the HDTune write trace:

Those familiar with HDTune and Samsung SSDs with Samsung's TurboWrite cache (from the 840/850 EVO) will recognize the above - the SSD begins writing at SLC speed and after that cache is full, the SSD then drops to writing at TLC speed. I specifically asked about this, as we've only Samsung flash provisioned with an SLC portion of each die, and the answer was that Toshiba and SK Hynix TLC flash also supports such a subdivision. This is good news, as it means increased competition from competing SSDs that can accomplish the same SLC burst writes as the Samsung EVO series.

We heard from a few vendors that will soon be launching SM2256 equipped SSDs this year, and we eagerly await the opportunity to see what they are capable of.

This is a prototype of looks is to be a monster of a budget PCIe SSD. Using a Marvell SATA RAID chip to link four Silicon Motion controlled SSDs together in RAID-0, this beast is to (hopefully) be available in 960GB all the way up to 4TB capacities, and Mushkin is targeting $0.50/GB or lower when it launches later this year.

Details are slim here, but Mushkin is smartly jumping on the M.2 bandwagon.

SandForce has had their new controller in the works for far too long (we saw silicon demos like this last CES in fact), but we are hoping to see actual product released this year. Note this delay is solely due to delays in SandForce's development process.

We covered some other Storage Visions sightings in a prior post, so now that a bit of the CES dust is settling down, here's the rest of what was cool to see at Storage Visions:

We'll start off with the Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro Plus, seen here with a pair of OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSDs installed. This is a PCIe to 4-channel SATA HBA. The controller does not appear to employ RAID, leaving that functionality up to the host system OS. Two 2.5" SATA devices can be mounted directly to the PCB, and an additional two SATA channels are available through the rear panel eSATA ports. This card is marketed primarily as a storage expander for Mac products, and can be connected to a Mac Pro via a Thunderbolt-to-PCIe card expander.

Here is an ASUS Copper, which bridges M.2 (enclosed within a 2.5" housing) to a SATA Express link. This may be handy for current generation PCIe 2.0 x2 M2 devices, but with PCIe 2.0 x4 and 3.0 x4 SSDs on the horizon, a SATA Express device of this type will rather quickly become a throughput bottleneck.

Various recent enterprise SSDs. Bottom left is our first sighting of a P3500, sitting next to a Micron P420M, which is just below a Micron M500DC. The right side is all Samsung, and includes an XS1715, which is not SATA, but PCIe/NVMe via an SFF-8639 connector. There are a few M.2 units in the center, and what appears to be another 1715 HHHL unit (PCIe/NVMe) at the bottom right.

That wraps up the Storage Visions goodies. Stand by for more storage related posts as we comb through all of the press releases and photos from the meetings we attended earlier this week.

Patriot has released a new series of Ignite SSDs which use the Phison S10 controller and MLC NAND. They have opted to release large drives, the two models which will be available are 480GB and 960GB, priced at $0.44 and $0.42 if they come out at the MSRP. With these drive sizes the reported performance of up to 560MB/s sequential read and 545MB/s sequential write likely apply to both drives. We have seen this controller in action before when Al reviewed the Corsair Neutron XT 240GB which hit nearly those reported speeds.

Al first introduced us to Low Density Parity Check, the successor to BCH code error correction when he visited Marvell at FMS 2014 and was shown the 88SS1093 controller. Lite-On has used a slightly different chip, the 88SS1074 to provide LDPC to their new CV2 family of solid state drives. In addition to the new error detection capabilities the new controller offers 256-bit AES encryption and device sleep modes to enhance the battery life of mobile devices. The controller has 4 channels and is paired with 128, 256 or 512GB of triple level cell Toshiba A19 NAND which we have seen on Corsair, OCZ and Silicon Motion products. The press release references results of 4KB throughput at 100,000 IOPS which we hope to be able to verify in the future.

Corsair has just announced sixteen (!!) USB 3.0 flash drives, across four product lines. The Corsair Flash Voyager Slider X1 is the cheapest per gigabyte and supports read speeds of up to 130MB/s. The Corsair Flash Voyager Slider X2 increases the cost per gigabyte by about 25 to 33 percent (depending on the capacity) and boosts maximum read speeds to about 200MB/s.

The next pair of product lines are even more high-end. Once again, the cost per gigabyte increases with the Corsair Flash Voyager GS, which has maximum read speeds of about 260MB/s and maximum write speeds of 105MB/s. Finally, the Corsair Flash Voyager GTX is the top model, with read speeds of up to 450MB/s and write speeds up to 200MB/s. The Voyager GTX contains an on-device SSD controller, as did the 2014 model that Allyn reviewed earlier this year.

The product details are as follows (all prices are MSRP in US dollars):

As a recap, it was a quad core Phison controller. The performance was decent, but not groundbreaking. We reviewed the Neutron XT much earlier than the official release, which happens to be right now.

I refer you back to the review linked above if you want the full performance scoop, but for now we can cover pricing, which was also just released:

256GB: $150 ($0.59 / GB)

512GB: $270 ($0.53 / GB)

960GB: $540 ($0.56 / GB)

That pricing seems under whelming considering competing drives are performing better and selling at the same or lower cost/GB. We'll keep an eye on the actual selling price and report back once these hit the street.

This morning Kingston officially launched their HyperX Predator. This is an M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 SSD using a Marvell 88SS9293 controller. We would normally paste their press photo here, but we were fortunate enough to get our own photo from one of the press events last night:

I can see just how this design went down. Marketing guy tells design guy "make this look cool". Design guy epically succeeds by leaving the PCIe data lane differential pair traces unmasked. There's no doubt this is a PCIe 2.0 x4 SSD, as you can clearly pick out the four sets of traces. It's a subtle thing that makes the HHHL adapter board look just so much cooler.

The HyperX Predator will also be available in a bare M.2 2280 form factor, seen here in a new Broadwell NUC:

The Marvell controller at use here is a native PCIe solution and should have no issue reaching 1.4 GB/sec reads and 1 GB/sec writes. Capacities will launch at 240 GB and 480GB, with a 960GB option coming mid 2015. We will publish a full performance review of this attractive new SSD just as soon as we get a sample in for testing.

The rear is fairly simple, but if you note the quad Gigabit Ethernet, you realize this is actually a NAS powerhouse. When linked to an appropriate business oriented server (Windows Server 2012, ESX Server, etc) with a quad Gigabit link, 450MB/sec can be achieved. Similar read speeds are possible even with the integrated hardware AES-256 encryption enabled, but write speeds will then be limited to just under 200 MB/sec. Additionally, multiple 1515+'s can be chained together to support up to a single 90TB array. I'll leave you with a cool photo of a NAS on fire, followed by the full press blast after the break.

These are essentially 850 EVO's in very small portable packaging. They support USB 3.0 speeds as well as UASP, so random IO performance should be very respectable. We have not tested it ourselves, but something on the order of 8,000 4k random IOPS should be achievable.

Claimed speeds are up to 450 MB/sec, likely limited by the 5Gb/sec USB 3.0 interface being used. 256 bit hardware-based AES is also included, with the drive unlockable by the use of a small software app that is embedded on the drive. The included cable is impressively thin considering it is a full USB 3.0 spec cable. The release states the lowest capacity 250GB model will sell for $180. Based on other data we have, the 500GB and 1TB capacities should sell for ~$350 and $650, respectively. We will review the T1 just as soon as we get back from CES later this week.